Emanuel gets a few pointed questions at town hall meeting

Venturing outside his typically tightly-scripted settings, Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Monday night found himself having to answer a few pointed questions about some of his early decisions.

Mental health advocates questioned the new mayor about his decision to privatize seven primary health clinics. And traffic aides who were laid off last month greeted Emanuel with boos, with one man in the audience even calling the mayor a “liar.”

“I got it. I understand. I didn't relish making the decision,” Emanuel said.

“The budget, while it’s obviously a set of numbers, is also about a set of choices we have to make for the city. We’ve been doing smoke and mirrors on the budget…Our moment of reckoning is here,” he added.

The occasion was the mayor’s first traditional town hall meeting as he puts together his first spending plan. Emanuel’s administration tried to focus the discussion on the city’s daunting $635.7 million shortfall for next year. But as often happened to former Mayor Richard Daley, the evening at times turned into a wide open forum, with residents taking advantage of the face time with the mayor to vent their frustrations.

City Colleges Chancellor Cheryl Hyman moderated and read several pre-submitted questions, even though some of the questioners were in the audience at Kennedy-King College.

The mayor had a message of his own. Before taking the first question, Emanuel announced that he will tie pay to attendance for those who serve on the city's boards and commissions. Emanuel also said he has slashed the city's outlay for such positions in half, cutting it from $621,000 to $314,000.

Last month, the mayor cut stipends for the Cable Commission and Board of Local Improvements, whose members made between $19,000 to $23,000, to a symbolic $1 a year. The other boards affected are the Police Board, the Human Resources Board, the Zoning Board of Appeals and the License Appeal Commission.

Pay for each board varies. The chair of the Human Resources Board, for instance, was making $42,000, which will now be capped at $9,000, the mayor's office said after the hearing. The two board members used to earn $23,000, and can now take home no more than $6,000.

In preparation for the public exchange, Emanuel set up a web site, ChicagoBudget.org, to accept suggestions. About 2,000 people offered ideas, according to the administration. Online contributors also voted, Facebook-style, on whether they liked or disliked submissions.

Among the most popular suggestions were cutting aldermanic pay and expenses, getting rid of security detail for aldermen and former mayors, going to a paperless government, and legalizing and taxing marijuana.

Emanuel’s staff says it has carefully examined the ideas, providing feedback and considering what can be implemented. But according to the city’s web site, none of the suggestions are “in review” or “In progress” yet.

Prior to Monday, Emanuel has opted for more controlled exchanges with the public. Kennedy-King hosted an Emanuel Facebook town hall in June. That live online chat featured pre-submitted questions ranked by the public through the city’s web site, Facebook and Twitter.

Although he taped the event in the school’s television studio, several people who showed up were disappointed they had to watch Emanuel on a big screen in the auditorium and had no interaction with the mayor.

During a taped appearance last week for WBEZ’s “Eight Forty Eight” the audience lined up behind microphones to query the mayor, only to be told that he would not be taking questions from those in attendance.

Emanuel plans to hold a second public meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Malcolm X College, 1900 W. Jackson Blvd.

The mayor is scheduled to present his first budget in October. The City Council must vote to approve a spending plan by the end of the year.